Bubsy in Fractured Furry Tales
Bubsy in Fractured Furry Tales is a platform video game developed by Imagitec Design and published by Atari under license from Accolade. The game was released on December 9, 1994 1. It was the third of six unique games in the Bubsy series, and the only one released exclusively for the Atari Jaguar video game console. The title itself is a word play in reference to "Fractured Fairy Tales", a segment from the animated television series The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends. 1 Plot The fairy tales on the world have suddenly become altered after Mother Goose, who maintained peace and balance throughout them on Fairytaleland, was captured by both Hansel and Gretel, leading to the appearance of creatures that corrupted these stories. As a result, Bubsy sets out to stop the creatures and antagonists of the now-altered stories in order to protect the kids from their current state. After Bubsy defeats both Hansel and Gretel as well as freeing Mother Goose from her captivity, all of the stories in Fairytaleland revert to normal and the creatures disappear afterwards, with Bubsy deciding on what is next for him. Gameplay The game plays very similar to the first two games in the Bubsy series, Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind and Bubsy 2. The game plays as a 2D sidescrolling platformer. While the goal is still to maneuver Bubsy through the level to the end, this game emphasizes more puzzle elements such as flipping switches and complicated level design. As the game's title suggests, the levels are themed after fairy tales, such as Alice in Wonderland, Jack and the Beanstalk, Ali Baba, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Hansel & Gretel. In the game, all of the fairy tales have been corrupted, and Bubsy is tasked to fix them, and protect the children of the world from them. The game featured a password feature, allowing the player to revisit any level already completed. Reception Like the two earlier Bubsy games, reception for Fractured Furry Tales was positive at first for the graphics and music, but has been mostly mixed to negative over the years for the difficulty of the game. IGN was critical of the game, stating that while the fairy tale theme worked, they complained the game's attitude felt very forced, the extras and improvements from Bubsy 2 were not added as both games were developed at the same time, and that the game overall felt like "one giant step sideways". Atari HQ was equally critical of the game, citing a frustrating combination of sloppy controls and high difficulty, and suggesting Jaguar owners buy the original Rayman instead, due to better graphics and sound. Many reviews found the game to be too close to the previous installments of the games in the Bubsy series, which were not rated very well either. Additionally, several reviewers found the graphics to be impressive by Super Nintendo standards, but not necessarily for a system that was supposed to be part of a more powerful generation of video game consoles. Development On November 11, 1993 Atari and Accolade jointly announced 2 a licensing agreement where Atari would publish 5 titles by Accolade for Jaguar by fall 1994: Al Michaels Announces HardBall III, Brett Hull Hockey, Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind, Charles Barkley Basketball (same game as Barkley Shut Up and Jam! for SNES and Genesis), Jack Nicklaus' Power Challenge Golf (later: Jack Nicklaus Cyber Golf for Jaguar CD) The only project to see official release was the above mentioned Bubsy game, using the source code of Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind with new story, enemies and levels. The only other title later found by Jaguar collectors was Brett Hull. Both projects were headed by producer, Faran Thomason. 3 Game producer of Fractured Furry Tales, Faran Thomason mentioned in an interview 4 that while most of the foundation work was complete in porting the Sega Genesis code to the Jaguar, Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind was already an old game on the market. It was decided to stir up interest in the new market would require a new storyline, enemies, and bosses to fight. Merchandise In an interview with producer Faran Thomason 4 it was mentioned the marketing and production budget was fairly limited. Because of the limited budget there was not any shirt promotions as seen with Bubsy: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind or Bubsy 2. References to Fractured Furry Tales On the offical Bubsy website, Fractured Furry Tales is listed as the third game in the Bubsy Timeline. A Twitter message on August 24, 2017 before the launch of Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back the media representative for Accolade posting as Bubsy T. Bobcat said: Advertisements Trivia * The book Inside Electronic Game Design by Arnie Katz, tells that 50,000 copies were sold the first 6 months of release, with only 60,000 being produced. * The reason for the difficulty of Fractured Furry Tales was related by Faran Thomason to be due to the extreme difficulty of video games in the mid-ninties that the play testers were accustomed to. * Bubsy Fractured Furry Tales was developed by Atari while Bubsy 2 was developed by Accolade. While there was some awareness of changes of Bubsy, such as the Nerf gun and multiple hits, Fractured Furry Tales was too far into development to make such changes. * Most of the programming was completed by programmer, Andrew Seed * Source code places the Hansel and Gretel Level as world 3, Alice in Wonderland as World 5, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves as world 1. In final production, Alice in Wonderland was made World 1, Ali Baba became world 3, and Hansel and Gretel became world 5. * The woman in the cage at the end of Hansel Gretel was originally referred to as "The Witch" which was later changed to Mother Goose. * In the source code for the Hansel and Gretel level the boss drop cherry bombs on Bubsy which pop as they hit the ground or Bubsy. In the remarks it is said to the rest of the development team "No smutty comments please" as some Atari execs might review the code later. * In the original design of the Jack and the Beanstalk levels there was originally a design for a bean pod which would explode if approached too closely. This enemy was later scrapped. * In the original Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind the exclamation Point on Bubsy's shirt was red for first player or green for second player. This feature was not activated in the porting the Genesis code to the Jaguar platform. The result was the yellow exclamation mark which was actually a null color. * All of Bubsy's character animations were ported from the Genesis to the Jaguar. Also included was the pushing animation, which is not used in Fractured Furry Tales. Notable Quotes * "Oh sure, let's all torch the Bubster." ~Used on levels: Go Ask Alice!, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dummer and Alice Doesn't Live Around Here Anymore.; Alice in Wonderland * "Pilot's license? What for?" ~Used on levels: Out on a Limb, Highly Stung and Jungle Furvor; Jack and the Beanstalk * "Keep it up! Just keep it up!" ~Used on levels: Rushing Roulette, Desert Storm and Bubsy and the Beast; Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves * "Who do I look like? Flipper?" ~Used on levels: Run Silent; Run Deep, Bubble Trouble and Reservoir Cats; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea * "Nothing can stop me now!" ~Used on levels: Sugar and Spice, Rock Around the Choc and Cat on a Hot Chocolate Roof; Hansel & Gretel External Links 1 Fractured Furry Tales Wikipedia entry 2 https://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/tramel_technology.html 3 Faran Thomason on Atariage 4 Bubsy Bobcat Fan Blog interview with Faran Thomason 5 Bubsy HQ on the Internet Archive. Category:Games